[news]Call for port extension to be halted as genocide remains are found on Namibia’s Shark Island

[Otman.™]

Researchers say more bodies of Herero and Nama people from early 20th century concentration camp could be in waters around port

 

 

The Namibian authorities are being urged to halt plans to extend a port on the Shark Island peninsula after the discovery of unmarked graves and artefacts relating to the Herero and Nama genocide.

Forensic Architecture, a non-profit research agency, said it had located sites of executions, forced labour, imprisonment and sexual violence that occurred when the island was used by the German empire as a concentration camp between 1905 and 1907.

 

More than 65,000 Herero people and 10,000 Nama were killed by German troops between 1904 and 1908 in what is widely acknowledged as the first genocide of the 20th century. The attack was in retaliation for a revolt against colonial rule led by paramount chief Samuel Maharero. Many were killed in the camp on the island, which is now a peninsula.

 

Researchers said there was a “credible” risk that human remains could be found in the waters around the peninsula’s port, which the authorities want to expand to support green hydrogen production along the country’s south coast. Historical accounts suggested people who died in the camp were “thrown to the sharks”, said Forensic Architecture.

Researchers have called for a moratorium on all development projects in the area and for wider investigations into potential underwater graves. “Any prospective construction needs to be stopped until these sites are fully protected, and thorough studies of the remains on the camp have been done,” said Agata Nguyen Chuong, a Forensic Architecture researcher.

“[The] constructions will further desecrate and compromise Shark Island as a site of archaeological, historical and cultural heritage.”

Forensic Architecture worked with traditional leaders to identify the locations of the genocide through historical accounts cross-referenced against archival photos, documents and satellite imagery. Ground radar was used to detect anomalies in the soil to identify mass graves

 

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/may/06/port-extension-call-halted-genocide-remains-namibia-shark-island